Thursday, January 31, 2013

In my life this week...
I went to lunch with a homeschooling friend and her boys to our Taekwondo instructors Korean restaurant, It was so nice to chat and have a very yummy lunch among friends the older boys were excited to sit at their own table and feel like adults. When I went to the bathroom I noticed Falcon's picture was on the poster for our Taekwondo studio.

I also went out with some homeschool friends to a coffee shop one evening to discuss all things homeschooling and girl talk in general.

We went sledding the day before it all melted again!
My little boys have been so crazy lately that I feel like I need to super glue their pj's to the sheets to keep them in bed! They have just been so rambunctious!

In our homeschooling week...
It's been one of those weeks that I feel like I got so much and so little done all at the same time? Do you ever feel that way?

We are working on studying Belgium for our homeschool group event that I help run.
We worked on making comics since they are big in Belgium

The comics Tintin and the Smurfs originated in Belgium

Then we watched

Another series we started this week, we are on disk 2.

Gummi bear math
We did all sorts of probability, fractions estimating adding subtracting and sorting before dividing them equally between us to eat.

Robin starting to lick her gummi bears to help act as glue to stack her bears but didn't have much more success.

I bought M&M's's to do this color wheel project. but almost ate all of the M&M's before we had a chance to do it. I have the will power to not buy junk at the store and bring it home but if it's in my house I have no will power not to eat it!

We made peanut butter button and bear cookies to go along with our BFIAR Courduroy unit.

I also drank a bit more coffee than I usually do this week due to coupons I had for 2 of my favorite coffee shops. Falcon was so excited I let him order his first coffee he had a caramel mocha latte breve with decaf espresso and whipped cream.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

The kids acted like owls, they stood on branches way up high in the tree ( the couch ) and jumped down onto the floor catching mice and other small rodents ( pom poms) with their talons (feet) then dropped their prey in their nest (shoe box)

Falcon has 2 in each of his feet

Robin and Duck showing me what they caught

It was quite funny to see them scramble around and walk with prey in their feet.

Survival of the fittest ( a game we played with added incentive to get the most cookies for snack)
After they had all practiced a few times I explained how only the fittest survive in the wild then when I said "go" they were instructed to jump from the trees ( couch) and catch rodents ( pom poms) however many they were able to catch would equal to the amount of cookies I would give them for snack. Some might say this was mean but it really got the point across on how important it is to stay fit and to practice often in anything you do so you can perfect your technique and become a master in whatever they choose.

We went owling as well. Not outside at night though, Falcon has a stuffed Snowy owl and Owl has a stuffed Great Horned owl. At night I would hide the owls somewhere in the house ( always up high because that's where owls would be) and the kids would go owling every morning. We did this all week long, they loved it.

Owl lunch- all the kids enjoyed creating their owl personal edible owls.I put out all sorts of foods and let them decide how to do their owl. This is Robin's she even chose coconut flakes at the bottom for snow (kinda hard to see in the picture).

Falcon who is 12 is to old to do most of the projects along with the FIAR books but he does participate sometimes and do some of the go along art and science projects.He usually reads the book at least once to my littles at circle time.

He looked through the book picking out similes and metaphors

Moon Talk

We discussed the many powers of the moon and how it affects gravitational pull and the tides. Since our body is made up of mostly water we discussed how full moons may effect our bodies. Their grandmother is always saying how crazy people are out during full moons and that the hospitals are usually the busiest on nights of the year when there are full moons ( she is an RN at hospital).

We discussed the similarities of a woman's menstrual cycle along with the moon cycle, that can't just be a coincidence!

Oreo moon phase snack
I don't know if you have ever noticed but I have a moon phase widget on my blog page at the very bottom. You can get your own here.

We are now going to track moon phases for the rest of the year today today is a waxing crescent if I would have started a few days earlier it would have been a new moon and the start on a new cycle,

Art
We painted a winter scene using a monchome color scheme and made sure we added shadows that the moon cast onto the snow from the trees.

Falcon's art piece, notice the shadow the paint bottle is casting on the painting? I thought this was great, just as he finished painting his tree shadow the sun projected a shadow on his art piece. Do you see the little owls in the tree? I love the 2 looking at each other on the right.

Robin's winter owl scene. I LOVE how these turned out.

Duck and Owl didn't really want to follow directions so this is what they came up with. The glue was still drying, it was the first time I allowed them to use Elmer's glue instead of glue sticks so they got a little crazy!A walk in the woods and nature studies
We listened to the sounds of bird calls at our local park

We watched woodland animals at the feeding station at the window on wildlife at our local metropark. ( I love our park system)

We went for a walk looking closely for any signs of animals.

Deer print?

Horse print?

Neat picture of frozen water rings.

Picture Robin colored and taped to her bedroom window we used this coloring book. It's such a neat book we bought it from a nature center over the summer I found it last week when de-cluttering.

We watched Snowflake Bentley and lots of other books on snow and winter.

This DVD actually contains the visual story on Snowflake Bentley, I highly advise watching the DVD,it held my kids attention much better than the book, although we do have both. This DVD also contain another Five In A Row story as well.

We made paper snowflakes

We also made these. I didn't get a picture of ours so you can see the blog I got the idea from. We used a mix of pink, blue, and purple paint. We traced the snowflake with Elmer's glue after it was all dry and sprinkled it with glitter for extra pizzazz. I will add a picture later in the week.

A few of our additional books we read this week sticking with the Owl, moon, winter, snow theme.( although there are no snow or winter books pictured here)

Draw Write Now Book 2 has this owl drawing and writing project that we will do this weekend.
Here are some great links to other owl projectsDrawing on owl
Owl Babies, A favorite book of my children check out this go alongNight Owl this would b e great done in chalk or oil pastelsWinter wood, hidden owls scroll all the way down it's second to last. I wish we would have done this one. The kids could have gathered sticks on a nature walk. There never is enough time in the week.

Friday, January 18, 2013

In my life this week...
My kids are sick again! Over Christmas my 2 youngest ones had a tummy virus, the week after they came down with an upper respiratory infection, this week brought a new stomach flu this time hit all 4 kids and my hubby. Then we went right into something else with fevers and aches,it seems like we have a never ending cycle sickness due to low immune systems due to being sick! We haven't been able to see my dad who going through chemo right now because we have been so sick.

I tried to write in my blog last night but got an upsetting text from a friend who just informed me she needs a double lung transplant. She has been ill for about a year and has been to countless doctors in an effort to find answers. She has finally received an answer, one that no one was prepared to hear. She has Pulmonary Veno-occlusive disease. The only known cure is a double lung transplant. For who ever reads this if you are the religious sort please keep her in your prayers. She is only in her 30's, has a beautiful daughter, and so much to live for please keep her in your thoughts.

In our homeschool week...
Although we missed out on a lot of events we had planned to go to we really did accomplish a lot.
We were Rowing Owl moon and made these really neat projects I can'y bring myself to talk abot them right now as my thoughts are elsewhere.

We managed to get out and get some fresh air and sunshine on Thursday and take a nature walk at a local park.

At the end of the summer my friend and I ( who I mentioned above) shared this beautiful moment with our daughters, we watched the sun set over a pond. It was a nice moment, it made me really think that life is so short and that we should savor every moment.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

I made Home made grape scented purple playdoh for the kids to play with

We have plenty of plain pillow cases so I thought it would be fun if the kids drew on the pillow cases with purple fabric markers, then they could always have them to sleep on. Even if they outgrown them I know I would cherish them forever.

Not all of my kids wanted to use a purple marker like Harold so I let them choose a color they wanted

Falcon working on his with a red marker.

Robin stuck to purple (side 1)
We also wrote Robin and the purple marker on the pillowcase and added the date. I covered up her real name for the picture though.

(Side 2)

Owl just scribbled on his (side 1) I put my hand over Owls and helped his draw the things he wanted.

I never did get a picture of Duck's pillow case he chose blue though!

Now when they lay their heads down to sleep they can dream of the adventures their marker could take them on.

We made hot air balloons ( like Harold drew in the story) working on a blog post tutorial for that.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

In my life this week...
After my 2 little ones just got over a tummy virus we now moved into a another virus, Sore throat sore muscles, headache, coughing, runny noses blah blah blah you know the rest. Seems like half of the U.S. has this and/or the tummy virus we had as well.

I had some heart testing done, I have been having difficulty breathing and palpitations its been going on for about a year but I felt the need to get it checked. Just last week I found out a close friend of a friend of mine went into cardiac arrest and died, she was only 35! Within the last month I found out a friend of mine has congestive heart failure and and another friend I went to high school with I found out he died of a heart attack 3 years ago at the age of 31! So I felt it was time to just make sure things are okay. people in their 30's having heart problems is just crazy!

Homeschooling around town...
On our way to homeschool event I felt that I was in need of a pick me up so I headed over to Starbucks's, home of the over priced but rather tasty coffee!There were 14 cars in front of me at the drive through. I bet no one was was inside, lazy Americans! I sat in my car and waited like a lazy American as well. My excuse is that I have 4 kids to get out of the car just to go in, 2 of which I need to buckle and unbuckle from car seats which is a serious headache, so I choose the drive though. The kids were watching a documentary on volcanoes in the car, I LOVE our built in DVD system in the car its a great way to sneak in more education into a day.

Yum!

Duck wearing the Starbucks's hat!

As far as our homeschool studies go we have been working on all sorts of things:

Weather

The human body

Indonesia

Volcanoes

Sharks

The war of 1812

Reptiles

Spanish

Latin

GMO's

and many other items.

I am in the process of changing up all of Falcon's work. I think we are going to be changing his studies to more of a Charlotte Mason method and try Ambleside online, now just trying to decide what level to start him at.

I am reading...

Whats cooking...
Lots of stuff a friend on mine has been pinning crockpot recipes like crazy so I have been repinning almost all of her pins on Pinterest and cooking some great food. So if you read this Sara, Thanks! Speaking of Pinterest I am highly addicted I spend to much time pinning stuff but I must say I have done some neat projects with the kids because of Pinterest so I am very thankful for that.

A photo to share...

Falcon shot this picture at the zoo

The 1 year old tiger cubs were nose to nose with us today. They were pawing at the glass and chasing us back and forth in such a fun playful manor it was one of the most enjoyable moments I have ever had at the zoo. The kids were so excited to have the tigers interact with them so much.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

We read Ten Apples Up On Top and while reading the book I had the kids stack their math manipulative block together along with the story.

They stack them on their heads and tried to jump up and down without them falling. (sorry about the out of focus picture)

Duck decided to do pattern all on his own without me even asking him, then he placed a counting bear up on top!

I asked them to guess which block there were the most of. Duck guessed blue, Owl guessed yellow.Falcon stopped over taking a break from his work and guessed red.

Duck sitting in his triangle putting all his blocks together in 2's then we worked on counting by 2's. We just started using painters tape on the floor in the shape of shapes to play games and such. They work so well I will be composing another blog entry on that later in the week..

All lined up, and the winner is RED and BLUE it was a tie.

It was such a fun and simple story that really added a lot of fun math into this mornings circle time.
Linking up with The Children's bookshelf

Baby Birds In My Nest

Falcon - age 17 Junior in CollegeHe attends a local University and is majoring in Communication. Now a Korean certified black belt in Taekwondo. He likes playing video games like all boys and has fun playing with paper money on the stock market.

Robin - age 11 grade (7)This was the first bird she was able to identify at 2.5 yrs old. She loves worms just as much as the robin. She has a fantastic memory and is very sweet and caring. She loves horses and takes English riding lessons. She is obsessed with Sea turtles and all things ocean right now.

Duck-age 9 grade (4)My most difficult bird, he keeps me on my toes. He has a very Jekyll/ Hyde personality.Stole his sisters stuffed duck as soon as he could crawl and adopted it his. Loves polar bears more than any other animal. He is super active and loves hard work outside. You can usually find him 30 feet up in a tree.

Owl- age 8 grade( 4)My silent observer. He loves to cuddle and be right next to Mama bird at all times he learns very quickly and is super cuddly. Loves nature and is always picking up animals and bugs. He is the family hugger!

Canary - Age 3 ( preschool)

Loves music, dancing and singing. If there is no music on she will make her own and dance to her own beat.